Tuscaloosa panel gives approval to rezoning country club

Thursday

Jan 24, 2013 at 12:01 AM

TUSCALOOSA | The Tuscaloosa Planning and Zoning Commission on Wednesday night unanimously approved a request to rezone the Country Club of Tuscaloosa — the first step to allow the building of apartments and condominiums on part of the 92-acre riverfront property.

By Patrick RupinskiBusiness Editor

TUSCALOOSA | The Tuscaloosa Planning and Zoning Commission on Wednesday night unanimously approved a request to rezone the Country Club of Tuscaloosa — the first step to allow the building of apartments and condominiums on part of the 92-acre riverfront property.The commission's action is a recommendation to the City Council, which will have the final say on the rezoning. The council could vote on the matter next month.The country club opened in the 1920s with Tuscaloosa's first golf course. It is one of the oldest continuing golf courses in the state. In recent years, the country club's financial woes have increased as its membership dwindled and the economy struggled. William Dobbs, president of the country club's board of directors, told a standing-room-only crowd of about 100 people at the commission meeting that without the zoning change, the golf course's future is uncertain.In October 2011, the country club's board concluded it had two options, he said. It could “lock its doors, deliver the keys to the bank and walk away, or it could find a buyer.“The second option, with all its uncertainties for the future of property, was better than foreclosure,” Dobbs said. “Our goal was to try and find a buyer who would continue to run the club at some level.”From November 2011 through April 2012, the board searched for but could not find a suitable buyer, he said. “In May, the dark cloud diminished,” he said.Chase Adcox, a local businessman, and a group of investors, indicated a desire to “buy the country club and continue its operations to some degree while developing some areas,” he said.The country club's members and board have approved the sale to KC LLC, which Adcox said includes private investors including some from Dallas who have invested in other Tuscaloosa developments including Midtown Village, a shopping center/apartment development on McFarland Boulevard.The sale of the property is contingent on KC LLC getting the necessary approvals for its development.KC LLC wants to initially build 180 apartment and condo units mostly where the country club's driving range is situated and in an area next to the tennis club, which the country club has sold. The residential units would be one to three bedrooms and marketed to professionals and families, accoding to Adcox. The developers also would build roads on the property and extend it to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The plans include keeping an 18-hole golf course for now. A second phase of development, however, calls for single-family homes to be built on the part of the golf course west of the clubhouse.City Councilman Bobby Howard, who serves on the Planning Commission and whose district includes the country club and surrounding residential areas, backed the rezoning, saying that it represented the most significant development for the city's West End since the 1970s. Additional residents living in the apartments, condo and possible future single-family homes would attract more retailers to the West End, which now trails other areas of the city in commercial development. Howard said the country club currently is zoned residential, and anyone could buy the property and build houses on it tomorrow.The new zoning requested by KC LLC is more restrictive than the existing zoning for the property, he said. It was added to the city's zoning code after the April 27, 2011, tornado for use in the city's post-storm rebuilding.The new zoning regulates such things as the facades on buildings and the height of structures, and it has more control over the overall appearance of a development. The new zoning also puts part of the country club property into the new riverfront development. That would allow that area to be tied into an expanded Riverwalk, bringing the pedestrian walkway into the West End.Several residents spoke about the development at the meeting, with several saying that they were concerned about how the development could affect their homes' property values and views of the river.Elizabeth Alter, who lives across the road from the golf course, said the future building of single-family homes on part of the golf course would affect the view she enjoys.After the meeting, she said she understood why the country club sought a buyer.“This is a very, very good thing for west Tuscaloosa and for Country Club Hills as a whole, but of course there are the unknowns that are a concern,” she said.